Sensory Science

Cargill’s comprehensive capability in sensory science and technology helps customers develop new products and maintain consistent quality and “sameness” in their existing products.

The sensory services we provide to help develop new products and maintain consistent characteristics in existing products include:

• Product matching to determine if your product is as good or better than that of a competitor
• Shelf-life validation
• Raw material substitution analysis
• Sameness of products manufactured at different sites
• Monitoring programs to prevent drift from a product’s established standards

In addition to the analytical, physical and human sensory testing and in-depth evaluation that we have long provided, Cargill now offers a superior ability to predict taste sensations — a capability that helps identify the natural molecules in flavor ingredients that enhance taste and ultimately lead to more appealing consumer products.

Our predictive ability is based on new taste tissue imaging, technology which we have found superior to the cell screening technology currently available in the flavor, food and beverage industries.

The new imaging technology allows us to see and measure the cellular response of taste cells to stimulants and simultaneously observe the interactions among all the taste modalities — sweet, bitter, salty, sour and umami. Using the technology, we gain a depth of data that is useful in identifying potential taste enhancers, blockers and modifiers.

Our services can help ensure that each time a consumer tries one of your products, the response will be “I like it.”